G.K. Chesterton

* Father Brown may seem unassuming, but when murder, mayhem, and mystery stalk English society, you can count on the guileless little priest with the cherubic face to catch the bad guys! This complete one-volume collection of Chesterton's timeless detective stories includes two newly discovered tales. A great gift for the armchair sleuth! 720 pages, softcover from Penguin.

Critic, author and debunker extraordinaire, G.K. Chesterton (1874-1936) delighted in probing the ambiguities of Christian theology. A number of his most successful attempts at combining first-rate fiction with acute social observation appear in this original selection from his best detective stories featuring the priest-sleuth Father Brown.

The Napoleon of Notting Hill
Chesterton conjures up a London neighborhood that has become an independent city, fond of pageantry and traditional ways, isolated by high walls from the rest of the world. When its rights and autonomy are threatened by modernizzing neighbors, war breaks out. It is a war fought not with astounding new weapons, but with swords and battle-axes, and it is waged for a cause in which the author deeply believed.

The Man Who was Thursday, Detective Syme is determined to discover everything about a club of anarchists, so he decides to infiltrate the resistance group and then he unwittingly, and unwillingly, gets caught up suddenly and finds himself elected to their council!

This witty, fast-paced tale brings the reader into a turn-of-the-century London club of anarchists. Their detective Syme is determined to find out all he can about their club, when he is suddenly elected to fill a vacancy on their council! Soon caught up in a bomb scheme, the story grows cheerfully bizarre, serving as a vehicle for Chesterton's philosophical, political, and religious speculations that are served in his standard irreverence and wit. 120 pages, softcover.

G.K. Chesterton has cast Alfred's struggles to free England from Danish invaders with Christianity's fight against nihilism and heathenism. One of the last great epic poems. 132 pages, softcover.